Gerard Way: “We’re All Screwed Up And We’ll Have An Easier Time If We Do This Together”

At The Umbrella Academy’s black carpet premiere in Hollywood, Gerard Way chatted about the story’s main message.

At last night’s Umbrella Academy black carpet premiere in Hollywood, Gerard Way chatted about the message of his whole entire story.

Ahead of the comic book’s adaptation’s release on Netflix this Friday, the musician and writer told Variety that its message was that “we’re all screwed up and that we’ll have an easier time if we do this together.”

“I was reading a lot of things, like Grant Morrison comics and Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol and Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and I wanted to make a postmodern superhero story,” Gerard explained of his inspiration behind it. “And then I wrote down all of these things I was interested in and tried to make characters based on them.”

Check out the little snippets of interview below.

Gerard Way explains where the idea for #TheUmbrellaAcademy came from https://t.co/fOo6iA4ElI

Last month, in an interview with Billboard, Gerard revealed that being on the set of The Umbrella Academy inspired him to write new solo music.

“When I was on set the very first day and we were watching the very first shot which was a scene between Ellen [Page, who plays Vanya] and Aidan [Gallagher, who plays Number Five], it’s the very last shot of the pilot and they’re talking about the end of the world and it’s supposed to cut to black,” he said. “And a song popped into my head for that, and I started writing this song that I ended up recording. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a song I would love to give to the show.”

The musician also revealed that his focus recently hasn’t just been on Umbrella Academy – he’s “been writing a lot”.

“There’s three things that are kind of the focus of my life besides family as being the most important thing,” he continues. “One, writing these two comics I write, Umbrella Academy and Doom Patrol. Two, making music once a week and releasing new songs – I was trying to do it every month but it’s now going to turn into longer gaps of releasing songs. And then my well-being is the other thing, like my physical fitness and my diet, making big life changes and quitting smoking, things like that. I did not take care of myself for the last two, three years writing comic books. I’m starting to really take care of myself again.”

“It’s flattering, it’s really nice of people…” he said of the constant offers the broken-up band were receiving to get back together, before adding: “I miss playing with the guys, but I don’t think so…”